A Question
by blueirony
Summary: Teddy comes face to face with his biggest fear: his girlfriend's father.


A/N: If you squint hard, you could say that this is a sequel to my other one-shot, "A Promise". But if you don't want to read that, no worries, this will still make perfect sense.

Apologies to anyone who read an early version of this when the formatting was horrendous. I am still learning how this website works, so thank you for your patience!

**A Question**

_You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt_

When Teddy had been four years old, he had thrown a tantrum at the Potters' dinner table. A stunned Harry and amused Ginny had watched as the little blue-haired boy declared he was only going to eat his steak if it was raw like his Uncle Bill's had been earlier that day at the Burrow. No amount of Harry patiently explaining that little boys had to eat their steak cooked if they wanted to grow up big and strong had coaxed Teddy to eat his dinner, nor had Ginny's threat of no dessert if Teddy did not finish his dinner until his plate was clean. The meal had ended with Teddy stubbornly sitting on the couch, arms crossed across his small chest, brow furrowed and mouth curled into a pout. Harry had taken pity upon the small boy and, once he was sure Ginny had left the room, he had appeared next to Teddy with two bowls of ice-cream. The two had sat in a comfortable silence while finishing their ice-creams until Teddy had fallen asleep on the couch and his godfather had carried him into his room.

Still to this day, Teddy was not quite sure why he was so fascinated with his Uncle Bill as a child. Maybe it was the scars on his face. Though his Grandma Andromeda had explained what a metamorphagus was, Teddy had always found it strange that he was the only person who could change his appearance at will. All of his uncles had smooth skin, but Uncle Bill's face was the only one marred with something other than freckles and a small Teddy had felt a certain kinship with his uncle at being different. Or perhaps it was the fang in his ear that Nana Molly eyed with exasperation at every family lunch. No matter how many times she had asked him to, Bill had never taken the fang out in all the time that Teddy had known him. It had astounded Teddy that someone would so blatantly rebel against Nana Molly and Uncle Bill had seemed like the bravest man in the world when he refused time and time again to take his earring out.

Whatever the reason was, Teddy had formed an almost hero-worship to his Uncle Bill in his younger years. He had spent many evenings listening wide-eyed to Uncle Bill's thrilling stories about his adventures in Egypt. Though he had spent many a night shivering with fear remembering the horrors of the pyramids that Uncle Bill described, Teddy had stubbornly refused to give into his fear; it wouldn't do to be scared. He wanted to brave and strong just like Uncle Bill. When asked about it years later, he had confessed to Harry that there was really no other word to describe Bill other than "cool". Harry had laughed and told Teddy that it was the very description he had used himself when meeting Bill for the first time.

Over the years, the hero-worship had turned to a deep respect as Teddy had matured. He had grown from idolising everything his Uncle Bill did to seeking him out on Sunday afternoons to have long chats about everything under the sun.

That was, until Teddy started dating his oldest daughter. From that moment on, his respect had turned to fear and the scars on Bill's face looked like weapons of destruction used in war rather than badges of pride as a result of war. His Uncle Bill had turned to Mr Bill Weasley, the intimidating man who suddenly seemed to have grown six feet.

It was safe to say that Bill Weasley now terrified Teddy Lupin. Teddy was the one who had made a move on his incredibly beautiful daughter, the first and beloved grandchild of the Weasley clan, and forever corrupted her. No longer was she Victoire Weasley, apple of Bill Weasley's eye. Now she was Victoire Weasley, the girl in love with Teddy Lupin. And Teddy had convinced himself years ago that Bill would like nothing more than to hang him up by his toes, cut his eyeballs out and watch the blood drain from his body onto the floor. Perhaps while calmly smoking a cigar like all evil warlords tend to do. He had also convinced himself years ago that the cellar of Shell Cottage was, in fact, a dungeon and that Bill was waiting for the right opportunity to 'show off his wine collection' to Teddy.

Which was the reason why Teddy found himself staring at the front door of Shell Cottage, frozen, unblinking. And had been for ten minutes. In another world, he would be rolling his eyes at himself and slowly admitting how pathetic he was being, but the only thing that Teddy could focus on was a feeling of numbing fear that was creeping over him.

Truth be told, Teddy felt as though he was about to face a firing squad. And from what he had seen on those Muggle movies that Tori was so obsessed with, they looked painful. The only reason he ever watched those movies was because he loved when she snuggled up to him on the couch when the two watched them together. She always seemed to fit perfectly and he loved the feel of her pressed up against him. But he would never admit to that. Snuggling was not manly. And Teddy was a man.

Shuffling his feet awkwardly on the front porch, Teddy mentally steeled himself for what he was about to do. He was prepared for this. He had showered. He had made sure his hair was its natural brown. He had tried on three different shirts before settling on the one he was wearing now.

He was being an idiot.

Taking a deep breath and remembering Harry's words from yesterday, _"Just be yourself, let him know how much you love her and you'll be fine. Trust me, Bill is one of the better ones. At least he won't turn your skin green for two days."_, Teddy clutched his wand tightly in his pocket and raised his other hand to knock on the door.

A few tense seconds passed and Teddy alternated between succumbing to his trembling knees and collapsing on the porch and apparating far, far away. Just as he was about to spin on his foot and apparate to the banks of the Vistula River where he would be safe from an almost certain death by the hand of his girlfriend's father, the door opened and Teddy found himself face to face with Bill Weasley.

A very tall Bill Weasley. Had he always been that tall?

"Teddy," said Bill, a brief flicker of surprise flitting across his face. "Is everything all right?"

Fighting the growing panic in him, Teddy forced himself to answer as coherently as possible. "No, no, I mean... yes, everything's fine, Mr Weasley. Bill. Bill Weasley. I-I mean, Mr Weasley. Sir. Or maybe I shouldn't call you 'Sir' because that makes you sound old." Seeing Bill raise an eyebrow, Teddy hurriedly continued. "N-n... not that you're old or anything, I-I mean, you're older than me but... you're not... uhhh... old," he finished, lamely.

Bill stared at Teddy for a few moments as if unable to decide whether to let the almost visibly shaking young man inside his home. For a wild moment, Teddy wondered if the older man was performing legilimency on him and struggled to get his thoughts in order. And keep them as clean as possible. Very clean.

Quidditch scores. His work schedule for the next week. The list of grocery items that Tori had pressed into his hand before all but shoving him out the door, claiming she didn't know why he was so nervous but she couldn't stand it and if he came home before 5:00 p.m. that night, he would become intimately involved with the couch for the next week. Tori. Tori's clear blue eyes that always seemed to watch him silently. The smooth skin of her stomach that he loved to caress just before he...

"Teddy." Bill's soft voice cut through Teddy's thoughts and Teddy looked up, hoping his face didn't betray what he had just been thinking. Teddy swallowed and fought to keep his voice as neutral as possible.

"Y-yes?"

His voice squeaked.

Bill's mouth twitched with amusement. Teddy didn't know if it was from the way his hands were now visibly shaking or from the thought of hacking him to small pieces and banishing them to Nebraska, but he was inclined to believe the latter. It would be so easy. Bill was on good terms with Harry, who had many friends in high places, and Teddy was well aware that Harry had the power and resources to vanish people, no questions asked. Harry, the man who had told him that nothing could be harder than facing a Hungarian Horntail at age fourteen and that, yes, of course it was natural to be nervous but Teddy really had nothing to worry about because Bill would be understanding.

Bloody Harry.

"Teddy," said Bill, once again. Teddy shifted his gaze from a very interesting spot on the doorsill to Bill's face and gulped once more. Teddy had the feeling that this was not the first time that Bill had said his name and took what seemed like the hundredth deep calming breath in the last fifteen minutes.

"Do you want to come inside or do you want to just stand there on the porch?" asked Bill, his voice laced with amusement.

Teddy seriously considered the question for a moment. Really, he didn't have to go inside the house, did he? He could stay here on the porch and then when Bill raised his wand to AK his arse into limbo, there would be eye witnesses in the sea. The dolphins. And the eels.

Sighing and promising himself to find his balls from wherever the hell he had put them, Teddy decided to simply jump the gun, so to speak. Fervently hoping that Bill did not have access to a loaded rifle, Teddy squared his shoulders and looked Bill in the eye.

"Sure, that would... um, that would be great," said Teddy.

This was progress. Only one stammer in that sentence. Perhaps he might survive this after all.

Then again, grindylows might fly.

Teddy followed Bill into Shell Cottage and tried not to flinch at the sound of the door shutting behind them. It closed with a familiar soft click but Teddy couldn't help but feel like he had just entered Azkaban and the door had just shut him away from his freedom.

He stood awkwardly in the front foyer, looking everywhere but at Bill. Trying not to shuffle his feet, Teddy racked his brain for something to say. His eyes fell on a picture of Fleur with a sleeping baby Louis in her arms. Perfect.

"So, how is Louis?" asked Teddy, carefully keeping his voice as casual as possible.

Bill furrowed his brow before answering, somewhat hesitantly.

"I imagine he's fine," said Bill. "But I'm guessing you already know that since you saw him last night and I haven't seen him since last Sunday."

Bill had a point. Two, actually, if Teddy considered that Louis was most likely more than 'fine' from the way he had been all over that petite brunette at the club the night before that he almost certainly took home.

What a player.

Not the time.

"Right, right," said Teddy. "And Dominique?"

Teddy was progressing. His sentences were getting better and there was little to none stammering. If Teddy kept this up, he could work his way through all of the Weasley and Potter clan, including all their pets and maybe not have to ask what he came for, after all. He would leave with all his limbs intact and there would be no messy dead bodies to deal with.

"She's also fine," said Bill, slowly. "But, Teddy, I..." Bill paused and looked at Teddy shrewdly. "Are you sure that you came here to ask about my children? Or is there something else you want to talk about?"

Teddy made a noise that sounded like a stranded animal. He had hoped to at least make it George's children before Bill put a stop to his pathetic excuse to not talk about why he was really at Shell Cottage.

Bill's face softened.

"Fleur isn't here, if that helps," said Bill.

Actually, it didn't help. Fleur, as vain as she was, would have made an excellent eye-witness should Bill take his wand out on Teddy. Though she may be Bill's wife, Teddy knew all too well how easily she could turn on him in the blink of an eye.

"No, that's fine, I just..." Teddy let his voice trail off and closed his eyes briefly. This was not good. He wasn't getting anywhere. And at this rate, Bill was more likely to laugh Teddy out the door than be polite enough to gently decline Teddy's request.

Teddy had to man up.

"Do you want to come into the lounge?" asked Bill. "I can even get us two butterbeers if you want."

Grateful of having something to do than awkwardly stand in the foyer, Teddy nodded.

"Yeah, thanks, that would be great. The lounge, I mean. But not the butterbeer. I had a big lunch."

Truthfully, Teddy would have gladly thrown back six firewhiskeys at that point to give him some liquid courage, but he didn't trust his hands to stop shaking enough to not spill any liquid all over himself. Or worse, Bill.

The two walked into the lounge and Bill waited for Teddy to sit on the edge of the couch before settling into the armchair across for Teddy. Bill stared at Teddy while Teddy looked at his hands and the two fell into a tense silence.

After a minute or two, Bill relaxed his posture and sighed resignedly.

"Teddy," said Bill.

"Yes?" asked Teddy, hoping to prolong the inevitable.

"Come on," said Bill. "I've known you since you were born. I know you haven't come here just for the hell of it. What is it?"

Teddy swallowed but didn't open his mouth. He knew what he had to say but he was too terrified of Bill's reaction.

"Is it about Victoire?" asked Bill, his voice soft and a knowing glint in his eye.

Tori. The sound of her name was enough to relax Teddy.

"Yes, it's..." Teddy struggled to remember the rehearsed words that had sounded so good in his head all morning. Another wave of panic threatened to overwhelm him but this time, he fought it down.

He could do this. He loved Tori with all his heart. Anyone could see that. He just had to convince Bill of it. He looked up and the small smile on the older man's face was enough to ease away the last of his worries.

Bill wasn't going to kill him.

At least, he hoped not.

"Well, you know we've been together for a long time," said Teddy. At Bill's nod, he opened his mouth to continue his well-rehearsed speech but decided to ignore the words he had run over and over in his mind and just speak from his heart.

"Sometimes, I wake up before her," he began, cursing himself for speaking a little _too_ much from his heart. Though Bill was aware that the two were living together, Teddy still held onto the belief that Bill didn't want to shoot him between the eyes for spending every night in a bed with his oldest daughter.

Teddy sighed. This was hopeless. He had to stop over-thinking everything he was saying.

"I wake up before her and... it's like she's too good for me. I sometimes don't get why she's with me. She's..." Teddy's voice trailed off as he tried to find the right word to describe Tori.

"She's perfect," he said, a small smile on his face. Suddenly, the idea of pouring his heart out to his girlfriend's father wasn't so terrifying.

"She makes me want to be a better person and I... I don't know what I'd do without her sometimes. I love her," he said, looking Bill in the eye.

"I love her so much and I can't imagine life without her. So, I was wondering, well, I was hoping that..." Teddy let out a breath before asking the most important thing he ever had in his life.

"I was hoping that you would give me your permission to marry her, sir. I promise to take care of her and make her as happy as she makes me," he said, willing his hands to stop shaking.

'Please', he silently added. And therein lay the problem. More than Bill declining Teddy, though it would be heart-breaking, Teddy _needed_ Bill to say yes. Throughout his whole life, all Teddy had wanted was a family of his own. Yes, he had his Grandma and the Potters who he loved dearly, but he craved to be an official part of the Weasley family more than he would ever admit, even to himself. It was only after he had started dating Victoire that he had realised just how much he wanted to be really part of the redheaded family and call it his _own_. Part of his heart still childishly held onto the belief that the Weasleys only put up with him because of Harry's duty to him and ignored the part of his brain that called him a fool for even entertaining the thought.

If Bill rejected Teddy, he would be doing more than just forbidding Teddy to marry the woman he loved. He would unknowingly crush the part of Teddy's soul that craved a family and Teddy wasn't sure if he would ever recover from it.

Bill sat back in his armchair and eyed Teddy for a moment.

"Does Victoire know you're here?" asked Bill.

Wishing that Bill would just give him a straight answer, Teddy let out a sigh.

"No, she doesn't," said Teddy. "Only Harry knows I'm here." Bill raised an eyebrow and Teddy explained. "I asked him yesterday about what I should do. You know, for advice."

The kind of advice that Teddy desperately wished he could have asked his own father. But he had long since accepted that it would never happen and Teddy counted himself very lucky to have Harry in his life. Though he was not much older than Teddy, he was a wonderful father figure and Teddy wouldn't trade him for anything.

Bill nodded and thought for a few minutes before he spoke, during which Teddy sat with his heart beating a million miles per minute.

"I knew your parents," he began. "Not well, mind you, but well enough."

Teddy blinked a few times and felt the familiar hollow feeling that always came with any stories about the parents he never knew but so desperately wished he did.

"A few months before, well... _before_," Bill continued and Teddy shakily nodded, understanding what Bill meant. "Your Dad had been helping me deal with... well, this," said Bill, gesturing to his scarred face. "He had this way of calming you down, no matter where we were or what we were doing. I don't think he ever... he'll never know how much he meant to me," he continued, his voice now soft. "To all of us."

No matter how hard he fought against them, unbidden tears came to Teddy's eyes and his gaze fell to his lap as a familiar sense of longing crept over him. There were times when he would be watching Ginny squeeze the life out of a protesting James and Teddy would wonder what it felt like, what it _really_ felt like to have your mother hug you. There were times when a lump would form in his throat when he would watch Harry and Albus sit next to one another, so alike in more than their looks, having a heart-to-heart and Teddy would close his eyes and wish he remembered what his father's voice had sounded like.

He had been told stories about his parents his whole life by those who had known them, respected them and loved them. As he had become older, he had built an image of his parents through the photos and memories shared with him. But it wasn't enough. The four-year-old inside him who watched as other children run to their parents after a long day at the park still yearned to know what his parents were like. No amount of stories could ever fill that hole in his heart, no matter how many times Harry told him that dwelling on the past was pointless.

But it still hurt. Listening to the stories never got easier. And now, more than ever, Teddy knew that he didn't just want to be part of the Weasley family, he _needed_ it.

Taking a deep breath and praying his eyes were still not wet, Teddy looked up into the kind eyes of Bill Weasley.

"Your parents loved you," said Bill, softly. "And I... I know that we can never replace them but you've always been part of this family. You've always known that. Even if you have the wrong hair colour," he added, nodding to Teddy's head which Teddy was relieved to note was still brown. "It's about time you made it official," said Bill, a smile on his face.

"So, Teddy," he said, holding out a large freckled hand. "Welcome to the family."

Teddy blinked at the proffered hand. What happened to the slow and torturous death that Bill had planned for him? Was this a trap?

"Teddy?" asked Bill, one eyebrow raised. "You might want to shake my hand before I change my mind."

'Or kill me', Teddy added silently.

"Kill you?" Bill asked, sounding confused, dropping his hand to the armrest of his chair.

A small groan escaped Teddy before he could restrain it. Had he really voiced his thoughts out loud? Realising he had no choice but to explain himself, Teddy braced himself for Bill to throw him out of Shell Cottage.

"I, uhh..." said Teddy, his voice high-pitched. He cleared his throat before continuing. "Well, with all due respect, sir, I, er... I thought that you would want to kill me when I... when I came here today." Teddy all but whispered the last part and hoped it didn't sound as lame to Bill as it did to him.

To Teddy's surprise, Bill laughed.

"Kill you? For wanting to marry my daughter? I can't blame you for that. She's a Delacour and any poor bloke would be gone the second she smiled at them," said Bill, a faraway look in his eyes.

Teddy tried not to grimace at the sudden lovesick look on the older man's face. Fleur may have aged very well but the thought of her and Bill like... that... was, well, a little bit sickening. The Weasleys were a very loving lot, but Teddy had always been a little uncomfortable at the open affection they bestowed on one another; a trait that he supposed he had inherited from his godfather.

"No, I'm not going to kill you, but who knows what the future holds and I become old and crazy like Dad, eh? I might just electrocute you with one his bloody plugs one day," said Bill, a twinkle in his eye. "But that's a long way away. In the meantime, I hope that you and Victoire are very happy together," he said, offering his hand once more to Teddy.

Teddy smiled and shook it firmly, physically feeling a weight lifted off his shoulders as he did so.

"One one condition, though," said Bill.

Teddy's heart sank. This was it. He would be dead within the hour.

"You have to tell Mum before she finds out," said Bill. "Because, Merlin forbid, if she finds out from anyone else, me killing you will be the last of your worries."

FIN


End file.
